Often we forget, and I think the comic companies do too, that a great character is absolutely nothing without a great writer and artist behind him.

The Avengers have often been a testament to that.

So when Brian M. Bendis and David Finch stepped up to the plate, it was like watching Shaquille O’Neal signing with the L.A. Lakers – greatness reborn.

#97 – Avengers 500

Things had gotten weird. Chuck Austen didn’t exactly knock it out of the park. In fact, it was a really weird combination, a quick modern writer writing snappy and snippy Avengers stories. I think I enjoyed it more than most, and I still get shivers thinking about some of his lower moments.

And so starts the true beginning of the Bendis Age of Marvel. The house of ideas had some cracks in the foundation. Tear it down. Rebuild. This laid down the groundwork for House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Siege. Essentially 60% of the Marvel catalog can give credit to Avengers #500 as an ancestral story root.

For comic fans of any and all eras, this is a comic book you can pick up and jump in. I really enjoyed how accessible comics were for a few years in the early 2000’s at Marvel – they knew the best way to get people on board was to open all the gates, and this issue is a great example of that. The art is perfect, some of my favorite David Finch work – think Jim Lee on crack – hyper realistic with just a touch more grit.